Preparation of gold/titania core-shell nanocomposites with a tunable shell thickness

Gold/titania nanocomposites with a core-shell structure were prepared by sol-gel reaction of titanium tetrabutoxide (TTBO) with gold nanoparticles, core-stabilized with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), using a ternary mixture of alcohol/acetonitrile/water as solvent. TEM characterization of the resulting constructs revealed spherical nanocomposites, each containing a single gold core. The mean diameter of the gold cores was 13 nm, while the thicknesses of titania shells were readily tuned in the range 4-30 nm by varying the alkyl chain length of the alcohol. In addition, the gold nanoparticles exhibited a deep red color, with an intense extinction peak at 527 nm, owing to their surface plasmon resonance (SPR) properties. When the Au nanoparticles were coated with a titania shell, their color changed to purple and the SPR peak shifted to a higher wavelength of 537 nm. Furthermore, the core-shell nanocomposites were found to display photocatalytic activity for the oxidation of 2-propanol under illumination by visible light (λ=500-560 nm).